Man who wanted to kill and eat a child faces 27 years

Federal prosecutors will ask for a 27-year prison sentence for a Massachusetts man who authorities say had a dungeon in his basement and chatted online with other men about their mutual desire to abduct, kill and eat children.

Geoffrey Portway, of Worcester, pleaded guilty in April to solicitation to commit a crime of violence, and possession and distribution of child pornography.

Under a plea agreement, prosecutors and Portway’s lawyer agreed to a sentencing range of 18 years to a little over 27 years.

In a sentencing memo filed this week, prosecutors asked for the highest sentence, arguing that chats recovered from Portway’s computer show he solicited several people for help in abducting a child with the intent of raping, killing and eating the child.

Authorities said they found a dungeon, a homemade coffin, disposable scalpels and other tools in the basement of Portway’s home. Several DVDs focusing on cannibalism were also on shelves.

“Portway may try to argue that the pictures and chats are just part of a fantasy life and that he never intended to carry out his plans, but the evidence clearly shows that is untrue,” assistant US attorney Stacy Dawson Belf wrote in the memo.

“In the chats, Portway becomes tired of people engaged in role play or fantasy, telling no less than 15 chat partners he is serious about wanting to kill and eat a child.”

Portway’s lawyer, Richard Sweeney, said he plans to argue for the low end of the sentencing range, about 18 years.

Sentencing is scheduled for next week in US District Court in Worcester.

Portway is a British citizen who has lived in the United States most of his life. He was among dozens of people arrested in an international child porn investigation.

“Portway has pled guilty to some of the most vile and heinous crimes known to our society, namely participating in the sexual exploitation of young children through the possession and distribution of child pornography and soliciting the kidnapping of a child for the purpose of killing and consuming that child,” prosecutors wrote in sentencing papers.

The documents filed include disturbing excerpts from online chats with conspirators nationwide — including the now-convicted Ronald Brown of Largo, Florida, a puppeteer who planned along with Portway to kidnap children he knew through his work with a local church.

Brown even sent Portway a photo of one of the boys “with lines drawn on him to identify the different cuts of meat,” the sentencing memorandum states. They discussed taking that child to a rented house in the Everglades, mutilating him, eating his body over several weeks and feeding the “leftovers” to alligators.

Federal agents raided Portway’s Worcester home on Jul 27 last year and discovered a locked door in the basement.

This led to a second door that opened into Portway’s lined dungeon which contained the small makeshift coffin equipped with large speakers covered in wire mesh at one end and fitted with exterior locks.

It sat close to a steel cage with multiple locks and a steel table top with steel rings at six points, which police believe was designed to restrain victims.

The dungeon was further kitted out with a chair, a television, and what appeared to be cable access to the internet, officers said.

Outside the room detectives found a chest freezer and an upright freezer, along with disposable scalpels, the butchering kits, and castration tools.